Crescendo
by straitjackit
Summary: It finally reached breaking point… The situation had to be confronted. !Sequel to Serenade, sort of. Oneshot!


A bit of a follow-up to 'Serenade', so you may want to read that first. Thanks to fledge for pointing out it was quite AU (I did mention he was acting kinda crazy!)

Title: Crescendo  
Summary: It finally reached breaking point… The situation had to be confronted. !Sequel to Serenade, sort of!  
Warnings: Insanity (mild), obsession, mentions of occult acts. Definitely AU, as there is a character death. Drabble-esque, as usual.

* * *

The situation had to be confronted.

Three figures, all dressed in the finest clothes in the land, strode down the hallway towards a bedroom with purpose in their steps. The one leading was a tall, lean man with long, wavy blonde hair and sharp blue eyes, currently narrowed as his determination to confront one he cared for dearly overcame his usual kindness. Behind him followed two women, who were opposites of one another. The older woman had knee length black hair, pale skin and walked with the elegance of a swan. She was grace personified, but the vision of beauty that was her face was contorted with fear, biting her lip till she drew blood. Meanwhile, the shorter woman, barely 19, had shoulder length hair the same hay colour as her brother. She struggled to keep up with her siblings, pulling up the skirt of her powder blue dress so she could run to keep up. She had a look of joy upon her face, as the terrible situation that had plagued them was about to come to an end.

Upon reaching their destination, Peter the Magnificent, High King of Narnia, threw open the doors to his younger brother's bedroom; almost an act of sacrilege. He immediately wished he hadn't, however.

The room was so horrific, that Susan the Gentle actually struggled to still her churning stomach.

The walls were coated in a thick black substance, congealed and sticky which, upon further inspection, turned out to be blood. Feathers and animal skins lay everywhere, from wolves to beavers.

_Is… Is **this** where the Beaver's child…?_Lucy thought, shuddering.

Beyond this mess lay the centre of the room, which had strange arcane symbols carved into the very floor, while bones and flesh lay scattered, scorched by flames of dark magic. At the very core of this elaborate and insane design sat a young man, no older than 23, cradling a dead otter with a look of fierce concentration –_and_ _is that anger?_ wondered the youngest child- in his face. He seemed oblivious to the stained and tattered state of his apparel, once having been a clean, crisp white but now reminiscent of the cherry blossoms, which are believed to gain their colour from drinking the blood of corpses beneath their roots.

"Edmund!" the High King bellowed. Edmund turned his head slightly, his dark hair falling into his darker eyes, but he didn't bother to brush it out of the way. Instead, he scowled.

"Why do you disturb me? I had believed we had come to an arrangement over the bedroom situation-"

"It's not about your bloody room!" Peter yelled, fear and anger tingeing his voice. "It's about this! It's about the fact that you're still not free from her. Can't you see, Ed? Can-"

Peter stopped talking as his brother rose to his feet, holding the mangled body with one hand. The head of the otter was hanging by mere threads of flesh, its coat matted with blood and further symbols carved into its flesh. Edmund turned to fully face his siblings, revealing the scars upon the right side of his body, and his own missing eye.

He started to laugh.

"Really, Peter. Did you think that simply killing Jadis was enough to rid us of her?"

A chill swept through the already freezing room at the sound of the name, which sounded familiar to the other three, though they had not heard it.

"You can always bring a witch back, dear brother."

Edmund raised the otter above his head and started speaking in a forgotten tongue, one uttered by a select few under the Witch's tutelage. His single eye gleamed with an unnatural fire, the brown turned to black.  
Susan collapsed in fear, with Lucy soon to follow. It was as if their brother was possessed.

"Peter!" Susan cried in a strangled voice. All her pleas for help were within that one word, but the look she received in reply told her that nothing could be done…

A flash of gold swept past and knocked the blood-drenched man to the ground. It stopped instantly upon reaching the other side of the room, allowing the people to see just what had entered from nowhere.  
Three hearts filled with joy and they were elated, as though a delightful stream of music or a delicious scent were wafting through the air.  
The fourth heart was filled with sudden dread and hatred.

The magnificent Lion laid down the dead otter at one side of the room, breathing upon it, before walking towards the possessed man he had stopped. He glanced at the others in the room as he strode slowly, giving them in that single look a promise to bring back their brother once again. He finally reached the boy- for that was how he appeared- and shook his head.

"Son of Adam," he began. "Should I call you such still? You have become more demon than he whom I entrusted my kingdom to. You have sinned more than any creature within any realm, yet upon seeing my face, I can sense you acknowledge the wrong-doing. What am I to do with a demon such as yourself?"

Edmund was suddenly filled with a new sense of courage and bitterness. Snarling, he shouted at the Great Beast.

"Soon, she will return and you will face her wrath!"

Aslan smiled, though there was no warmth in the gesture.

"This is your game, witch? To bring about your resurrection through one who, albeit foolishly, gave his heart to you? You have tainted a pure act, and in doing so have tainted him."

The Golden Beast watched his young child glare back defiantly and felt the cold malice in the boy's heart,which saddened him further. Breathing upon him, he whispered in Edmund's ear.

"Be free of the spell, my son. If you can find it within yourself to defeat the temptation, you can begin to redeem yourself for your actions. Know that I love you, and that your brother and sisters love you. It will give you strength."

_Crescendo_

The three siblings watched as Aslan moved away from the man that was once their brother. Peter ran past his Lord, eyes watering as they had once so long ago, upon the day they defeated the Witch for what they had believed was the last time. Grabbing hold of limp shoulders, he began to shake them.

"Edmund! You bloody fool! Don't you ever do as you're told!" he screamed, tears now blinding him from the gaping hole in the young man's neck, helping him to obscure the way his brother's head flopped just as the otter's had. He heard sobbing from behind him and knew it was his sisters.

"Why did you kill him!" he screamed at Aslan, already knowing the answer.

"He was no longer your brother, my son. He fell to temptation and couldn't grasp for the light… I am truly sorry…" the Lion spoke softly, crying himself.

Lucy asked the question all three had been dreading. "What has happened to him now…?"

"I am sorry, my child. You can only know your own story…"

* * *

So, Edmund went to hell. Yeah, I killed him. I'm sorry too. So, what did you think? I feel I could have done better, so I may re-write it, but not right now!  
Please review!  
Yours, Straitjackit (soon-to-be ruler of Earth) 


End file.
